Promises, Poppies and Pretences
by MiceWillPlay
Summary: In a world where vampires are slowly coming out of hiding so much has changed already for Bella Swan. But just as things have started to go back to relatively normal, will a simple note from someone she thought she had left in the past change everything?
1. Prologue

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Disclaimer: I do not own twilight or any of its characters

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Summary:  
In a world where vampires are slowly coming out of hiding so much has changed already for Isabella Swan. But just as things have started to go back to (relatively) normal, will a simple note from someone she thought she had left in the past change everything?

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Promises, Poppies and Pretences

Prologue

He was sat on the back of a wooden bench looking out to the cold grey sea, his back to the huge memorial. His bronze bangs hung untidily in front of his eyes as he watched the sun set behind the clouds, making them seem a hundred different shades of orange, pink and purple, like falling leaves in autumn.

A group of teenagers were stood serious faced as they lay a reef of blood red poppies on the steps of the monument. One of the adult escorts said something and the group started to disperse, splitting into smaller groups. Five girls broke the solemn silence, laughing quietly at a joke one of the group had made. As their laughter died one of the girls looked to the horizon her eyes lingering on the boy on the bench. Silently, she left her giggly friends staring after her and went to sit on the seat bench next to his feet.

He did not move to acknowledge her presence, nor did he shift his eyes from the horizon as she sat in silence next to him. An endless moment passed before he spoke in a soft velvet voice.

"Êtes-vous bien, mademoiselle? Vous regardez presque comme a perdu comme je suis."

A slow blush coloured the girl's pale cheeks as she replied slowly.

"I'm sorry Sir, I don't speak French." Then she dropped her eyes to her hands and waited for him to leave. They both sat in a still silence for a moment before he spoke again in the same velvet voice, only this time he let hints of a smooth American accent tone his words.

"Tell me," he began, his eyes never leaving the spot where the orange clouds met the sea. The girl jumped a little at the sound of his voice, startled by his change of language, while the boy paused before continuing. "Why are you here today?" It was not a special day to visit a memorial, nor was this particular one usually a place for tourists and school groups.

"I'm on a trip with school to France and this was the only day we could visit the memorial." She replied in a quiet voice, watching his face intently for any change of expression. "Why are you here?"

"Are you enjoying France?" He asked ignoring the question and asking his own instead. She was taken back wondering if she should continue talking to this strange man, but he had a very safe and comforting presence behind his icy, indifferent expression and for some reason she trusted him. So rather than just nodding and making an excuse to leave, she told the truth.

"Not really, nothing we've seen or done has been particularly amazing or interesting yet, just as I suspected." The boy's forehead creased in confusion.

"If you knew you wouldn't like it here, why did you come?" He didn't ask it like she was stupid; he asked it like he genuinely wanted to know the answer.

She sighed heavily and ran a hand through her long brown hair, assembling her thoughts into the short version of the story. "I've only just started living with my dad and I don't really fit in at this new school. I always feel like an outsider, so Charlie thought a change of scenery and being constantly around people would help me fit in."

"So in short, you came all the way to France, because your dad thought it would help you fit in at school?" _This _he asked like she was stupid.

"Yes."

"I don't believe you. No one goes half way across the world to please their parents, or to just try to 'fit in' to a new high school." His smooth voice was now tainted by his incredulity and the corners of this mouth turned down as he scowled at the horizon.

"Fine, don't believe me. It's none of your business anyway." She spat back at him, fuming.

They both sat in silence for a moment and when the boy spoke again his voice was back to soft, smooth and gentle.

"I'm sorry, I've had a very tough few weeks. I seem to be constantly surrounded by all sorts of half-truths, omissions, excuses and even the odd outright lie." He chuckled softly shaking his head. "But tell me something… I'm sorry what's your name?"

_This is where I should get up and walk away._ The girl thought, as his sudden changes of mood and tone unsettled her, as did the way he kept talking to her without looking in her direction. But before she could make her excuses and leave, she found herself answering him.

"My name's Bella."

"Bella," he repeated quietly while the smallest smile graced his lips briefly, then it was gone. "Tell me, what do you think of, what do you feel, when you see this place?" Bella froze for a second, confused by such a bizarre question then looked behind her at the pale monument and the rows upon rows of white crosses.

"I think of the people who died for our sakes and how young so many of them were. I feel sad because they died horribly away from everyone who cared about them, but at the same time happy for them."

"Happy for them?" He asked, again like she was stupid. She sighed, why couldn't she just have said something generic like 'I feel sad'. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks as she rushed through her answer.

"Yes, happy for them because they are all free now, they don't have to face the guns or the pain anymore. They don't have to suffer war anymore. They are all free, finally at peace in the afterlife."

Bella watched as the boy cocked his head to one side, thinking about her words. She instantly felt stupid for saying anything, so tried to steer conversation away from her thoughts.

"What do you feel?"

"Guilt."

"Why?" The boy turned to look at her for the first time. His suddenly desolate expression met hers under his untidy bronze hair that hung just over his eyes, a perfect contrast to his pale white skin. His eyes were a bizarre dark topaz in colour and were filled the empty desperateness that his expression was just an echo of. There was something else about them though, something that Bella couldn't quite understand, but in that empty glance his eyes seemed old. Like they had seen unspeakable horrors for so many years that it made them empty. His face, height and build had her guessing that he was about a year or two older than her, three at the very most, but his eyes were undoubtedly those of a much older man. He seemed young and old at the same time. Timeless.

Bella blushed as she realised she had been staring at him. But he seemed lost in his thoughts, his fingers absentmindedly playing with a silk poppy that was through the top button hole of his thick jacket. Then he took a deep breath and answered.

"Let's just say I feel as though, if more people had been able to go to war, to help them, there might not be as many names on that memorial or crosses inn that cemetery."

His words confused her but he had looked so haunted and lost as he spoke she instinctively took his black gloved hand in hers and squeezed it comfortingly. He smiled a small smile at her.

"Will tell me your name, please?" She asked

"Edward"

"Well Edward," She cleared her throat and looked into his eyes as she continued. "I don't understand why that could make _you_ feel guilty, as it was well before you were born. So I promise it is not your fault." He tried to interrupt but she cut him off, with a glare. "There is nothing you can do about the past, except make yourself miserable by obsessing over all the mistakes you have made. What is done is done; you should focus more on the present instead. You'll be happier." Her little speech had got quite commanding by the end, but it had always irritated her when people wallowed in pity over things they couldn't change anyway. Edward looked a little taken back by her change in tone, then a gleam came into his eyes and his expression turned teasing.

"Your right. Why should I think of the past when I have something so beautiful sat next to me?" He declared before lifting their joint hands and placing a gentle kiss on the back of her hand, like in an old movie. She blushed again and rolled her eyes at him. His lips were cold and she idly wondered just how long he had been sat outside for.

"Miss Swan get on this bus now!" Mr Carry yelled. Bella jumped up and looked behind her to see that everyone else was already on the coach. Her blush deepened as Edward handed her bag to her and kissed her hand once more before letting her go.

"Now Miss Swan!" Bella's teacher yelled again while she ran onto the bus, finding a seat quickly just as the engine started. As they drove away Bella looked back at the bench. But no one was there. He was gone.


	2. Chapter 1, Vampires 101

**Disclaimer: I do not own twilight  
A/N: Sorry this chapter is late, school hates me. I will try to updater every Sunday. This chapter goes to RobDaZzLes who was the only person who reviewed, so please people, follow her example and leave me a few words.  
Happy Birthday Bella!**

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**Promises, Poppies and Pretences**

**Chapter One- Vampires 101**

I smiled as I parked my truck in one of the last spaces in the lot. I may have been about to endure another day of endless tedium but I had a spring to my step as I quickly crossed the parking lot toward the school building because the sun was out. To someone living anywhere else this may be seen as a bizarre reaction to something as simple as sunshine however in Forks, Washington pure un-cloud-covered sunshine was hard to come by. You'd think that after almost 3 years of living here I would be used to the ever-present grey clouds and rain showers, but I still missed the bright yellow sunlight which always bathed phoenix, where I had spent the first 14 years of my life. I would have loved to take my time getting to class, just walking in the sunshine, but I had already spent far too long looking out my bedroom window and consequently was running late.

I got to English just as everyone was settling in their seats and Mr Berty was preparing to begin. Mike gave me a questioning glance at my hasty entrance and happy smile, while I very ungracefully fell into my seat stubbing my toe on the table leg as I did. Usually I got to school early and killed time gossiping with him and Jess, I just shrugged at in response and whispered.

"Sorry, I guess time just ran away from me." He opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Mr Berty calling the class to order.

"I am afraid, class, that today you will all have to be excused from your morning lessons-" Here he was interrupted by cheers, claps and shouts; I smiled wider, today just got better and better. "Class! CLASS!" He shouted over the babble until it quieted, "You did not let me finish; you are excused from your morning lessons to attend a lesson in '_Safety Measures and Awareness of Vampires in Everyday Life'_, which you all must learn in accordance to new laws." He paused and was answered by a few groans, then continued. "Hurry along to the hall the first talk starts in 10 minutes."

There went my good day.

It had been nearly 2 years now since the existence of vampires was officially announced and acknowledged globally. Of course, despite the presidents oh so reassuring speech on how _'the vampires had always been there we just had never known they were so there is no reason to panic or change our lifestyles in any way'_ of course mania followed, across the world holy symbols were hung, garlic was eaten, stakes were sharpened and for a while everything stopped when darkness fell. Shops closed, nightclubs were boarded up and everyone was either at home or in their place of worship. Madness reigned for 2 months, and the many politicians speeches, pleas for calm and order fell on deaf ears. Then exactly two months since their presence was officially announced, three vampires said their piece at yet another world press conference, no video or photographic evidence of what happened inside the hall was ever released, but every media outlet that had a representative present released their own report immortalising the first speech of the vampires. The three vampires didn't talk about themselves, didn't explain their existence or why they only revealed themselves now. They just spoke in calm tones reassuring everyone that they were in no more danger than they were before, telling them that they should go back to how their lives were before and continue to live as normally as possible. Basically repeating everything that human politicians had been saying before, but this time the room was calm and people listened. Slowly, in the months that followed things started to calm down, garlic was no longer in every food, clubs reopened and life slowly went back to normal. Charlie took down our crosses and went back to work as police chief, with just with a few new laws and instructions in case of a vampire attack. Now almost two years after that first announcement, apart from the paranoid and deeply religious, life was back to pretty much normal. The downside to all this is the endless lessons and assemblies spent on _'Safety Measures and Awareness of Vampires in Everyday Life'_ because the government officials have decided that teenagers and young adults are most at risk and do not take the dangers of socializing with vampires seriously enough.

I grimaced at Mike as we sat down in the uncomfortable plastic chairs and settled in for yet another morning of government information videos.

"Oh my god, could they have made that any more boring!" Jess huffed as she slammed her lunch tray on our table.

"Ug, I know, how stupid do they think we are? Seriously, if some random guy, human or otherwise, asks you to follow him into a dark alleyway, no one in their right mind is going to go!" I half shouted, irritated not only because my whole morning had been spent on dull, patronizing information videos, but also as we had now been promised at least one lesson a week on vamp safety, or '_SMAVEL'_ as the lesson was now called. I thought it sounded like some sort of belly button infection, if vampires even had belly buttons.

"I don't know Bella, what if he was _really_ good looking. Vamp guys are hot; I'd totally take my chances." Lauren's unpleasant voice interrupted my thoughts. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her stupidity.

"I don't see what's so amazing about them. I know their good looking, but personally I think the whole killing people and drinking blood thing is majorly creepy."

"Yeah, but Bella you don't date anyone, ever. You don't even do group dates with us anymore." I aimed a nasty glare at her which she ignored. "So you have yet to realise that everyone has some sort of weird habit, even human guys, so why not date the best looking people and ignore or learn to live with the bizarre things they do."

"Sure why not date a vamp, it would be great. Until he gets peckish and, instead of ordering pizza, gives you one hell of a love bite, drains your blood and throws your lifeless body into the trash somewhere. He then burns it until you're unrecognisable before going of to find his next victim. Endless fun." I said sarcastically.

"Don't be such a kill joy, just because you don't understand what its like to date someone attractive-" She paused mid sentence to give me an evil smirk before continuing, "in fact scrap that, just because you don't understand what it is like to date _anyone, ever_ does not mean that everyone else should be as lonely or cynical as _you_!" she shouted. I bit back what I wanted to yell in response and blinked away angry and hurt tears. Lauren had never exactly been _nice_ to me but even for her that was low.

There was a moment of awkward silence at the end of Lauren's rant and every one tried to go back to eating without looking at either of us. But of course, with my luck, that was not the end of it, Jess felt the need to say her part.

"That's not completely true," When Lauren tried to interrupt, Jess continued quickly. "Not the bit about vampires, I'm totally with you there. I mean, the blood drinking thing is _so_badass and the vamps on that video were so much hotter than any of the human guys I've ever seen." Mike, her boyfriend, dropped his fork and stared out the window, sulking. Jess pretended not to notice. "What I meant was Bella totally had a thing for this French guy about two years ago." I scowled at her; she had sworn never to bring that up again in return for details on what happened.

Lauren's smirk lit up into a full grown evil grin as she asked Jess for details, which she was only too happy to supply.

"Well, about two years ago now, loads of us went on this trip to France, in line with some new government scheme. One day we went to some old memorial,_ so_ boring, and we were all talking when Bella just wonders off to some bench and sits by this random, but seriously hot, guy….. What was his name Bella?"

"I don't remember." I lied. Of course I remembered, I remembered everything about that dusk.

"Whatever, anyway he talks with her for, like, fifteen minuets until Mr Carry screamed at her to get on the bus. Then this guy, totally old-fashioned like, kisses her hand before she leaves. She just stared out of the window the whole way back, like some love-sick puppy."

"I did not!" I hissed.

"Whatever." Was her only response.

"So Bella, you'd never follow a random guy? But you'd happily sit and make nice with him for a while." Lauren sneered. "Jess said he was hot, what would you do if he turned out to be a vampire?"

"I wouldn't go near him! I, unlike _some_ people, don't have a death wish nor do I want to become one of the living dead! Besides I think I can spot a vampire if I was sat next to one!" I hissed back at them.

"You probably could _now_, that's the whole idea of the new lessons." Lauren said to me before looking to Jess. "Jess, you said you guys went two years ago, right? So had vamps even come out then?" She asked

"No, they didn't make it official until about two weeks after we got back." Jess answered

Thankfully the bell rang then sparing me from more torture, and as they all stood to leave I tried to draw a line under it all. "It doesn't matter anyway, I saw him once two years ago, and I haven't heard from him since."

Last lesson I had to suffer my way moodily through algebra, pointedly ignoring Jessica, who was sat next to me sulking, when our teacher walked up to me and told me that I could leave class early as Mrs Cope wanted to see me. Suddenly I was in a much better mood, odds were that whatever Mrs Cope, one of our schools office ladies, wanted it would take far less than the twenty minutes that Mr Varner had let me out of lesson early. So I could go home and spend that little bit longer in my backyard enjoying the rare sunshine. Even ignoring Jessica's rambles and apologies got easier as the clock got closer to 2:40, but as I packed up and left I forced a smile at her and said I'd see her tomorrow. She wasn't forgiven, but Lauren wouldn't let this go easily and I needed all the allies I could get.

Mrs Cope was a flustered, short, lady but she was always polite to me and smiled as I entered the office.

"Hey, I was told you wanted to see me." I said smiling back, inwardly hoping this wouldn't take long.

"Oh yes, Miss Swan," She looked through some papers on her desk until she found a creased A5 envelope. "I found this when I was unpacking all the flyersfor your special class this morning, I suppose you got one?" I nodded, hoping she would skip the story and just giveme the envelope. "Anyway, I dropped them all over the floor knocking over some other piles of paper over too. As I was tidying up I found this." She gestured to the envelope but still didn't give it to me. "So I'm sorry, I'm not sure how long I'vehad it or where it came from. Some of the things I found were months, if not years old, so I'm sorry but at least it finally found its way to you." Finally she gave me the letter.

Written across the front in an elegant hand were the words:

_**For the Attention of Miss Isabella Swan **__**Only **_

The back of the envelope was stuck down with some serious tape and I had to ask to borrow Mrs Cope's letter opener to get it open. Inside was a small piece of white paper with an postal address and what I presumed was an e-mail address, but instead of a name before the sign there was just a bunch of numbers. Completely confused I put the note in my jeans pocket gave Mrs Cope the envelope and asked her to put it in the trash for me.

As I turned to leave my thoughts were everywhere. When was this thing sent? How was it sent? There was no stamp on the envelope, and most importantly, who would send me this? I was walking out desperately trying to work out who would have sent it, while carefully trying not to think back to lunch, trying not to hope it was him, when I heard Mrs Cope's voice.

"Isabella, there's still something in the envelope."

I ran back to her desk to see what she had found and held my hands out like a small child waiting for sweets. She turned the envelope upside down and I gasped at what fell into my hands. I closed my hands carefully around it then ran out to the parking lot. Once safely inside my truck I opened my hands again and gazed down in wonder at the item that confirmed my hopes and fears at once. I looked down at my hands again and shook my head in disbelief.

Because I could only think of one person who would send me a single, blood red, silk poppy.

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**A/N: Now please leave me some love!**


	3. Chapter 2, Poppies, Emails and Jacob

**Disclaimer: I do not own twilight  
A/N: I am alive! And back! sorry this chapter is so late, school killed me this term. But ive got it together now and should be able to get back to more regular postings soon.  
But hold on people, i know how many of you read this, put it in your favorties or add it to your story alerts, and i love you for it. But out of all of you only two people have reviewed. so i'll do a deal with you: i'll update more often if you review, even just a word.  
This chapter goes to XxXEAMCloverXxX for being my second reviewer!  
Sorry for such a long A/N enjoy the story and i'll see you at the bottom.**_

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Once safely inside my truck I opened my hands again and gazed down in wonder at the item that confirmed my hopes and fears at once. I looked down at my hands again and shook my head in disbelief. _

_Because I could only think of one person who would send me a single, blood red, silk poppy._

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**Promises, Poppies and Pretences**

**Chapter two- Poppies, emails and Jacob**

I drove home as fast as I could, and with just one quick glance toward the driveway to check Charlie was still gone, I was running through the door and up the stairs to my room. Miraculously without falling.

I kicked the power button to my computer and sat down as the ancient thing wheezed to life. Carefully I took the little poppy out of my pocket and examined it closer. It was very beautiful; its blood red silk petals were soft to touch but held their shape, mimicking the live flower almost flawlessly. The only thing that gave away its secret was that no real flower had petals that round shaped, no real flower had such a vibrant red colour. No real flower was perfect.

As the monitor lit up I was distracted by the poppy's centre, when the light hit it just right you could see a little image engraved into the black stone. It was a tiny little crest; a minuscule coat of arms intricately carved into the stone and just underneath it was what looked like two rows of lettering, the top row substantially longer than the second. I tried to read it but the font was tiny, smaller than the lettering on a coin.

I was sat in silence holding the poppy close to my face, trying to read the minuscule script when the slam of a car door brought me back to the real world. I gently, like it was made of glass, placed the poppy in my desk draw and ran downstairs.

"Hey Bells." Charlie called from the front door, just as I reached the bottom of the stairs and headed toward the kitchen.

"Hey dad. Sorry I haven't started cooking yet so dinner could be awhile."

"Don't worry, Bella. Billy and Jake are coming over later anyway so I'll order pizza, ok?"

"Awesome, thanks dad." I started to back toward the stairs again but Charlie stopped me mid step.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" He asked raising an eyebrow at me. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at his clear 'there-had-better-not-be-a-boy-even-vaugely-involved-in-whatever-you-are-rushing-off-to' tone.

"I've just got something to finish up form school." That wasn't _technically _a lie.

"Okay, I'll call you down when they get here." Charlie said, obviously pleased with my answer.

"Thanks dad."

Once I was in room I shut the door and went straight to my computer, pleased to see that it was now up and running, well more like slowly walking, but it was online. I sighed and loaded up the page for my never used email account that Jess had set up for me a while ago, telling me it would help with my lack of boyfriend, or as she called it my 'issue'. She said it would help me practise my social skills without having to worry about blushing or stuttering, as it was not face to face and the words were typed not spoken. I never logged into it.

I opened a new message (luckily it was set out very simply) and typed the address off the paper into the sender box. I hesitated then, unsure what to say, I couldn't exactly put:

**Hey Edward,  
It's just me, you know that girl who you sat on a bench with at a memorial a few years ago. Anyway I got your cryptic message and just wanted to say hi.  
Bella**

No, that wasn't happening. He'd probably think I was insane or something. Besides Miss Cope had said some of the things she'd found were years old, he could have sent this straight after France and has probably forgotten al about me by now. I couldn't help but frown a little at that thought. Sighing I tried again.

**Edward,**

**I got your message from school today and I just wondered how you were. I know we met along time ago but it's still nice to hear from you, also the poppy is very beautiful, thanks for sending it.**

**Bella**

It was clumsy and awkwardly worded, but it got my meaning across. Just before I hit send I realised that I had no actual proof that Edward sent the note so I quickly added another line.

**P.S. If this isn't Edward I'm sorry, but I got your note.**

Why couldn't I have been born with_ any_ sort of social skills?

Just then I heard Charlie call my name so, realising this was probably the best it would get anyway, I hit send and went to go greet Jake.

Jacob Black has been my best friend since I moved to Forks, he was one of the first people I met and he's been there for me ever since.

"Hey Jake!" I yelled as I ran down the stairs.

"Hey Bella!" he smiled as he pulled me into a bone crushing hug.

"What brings you guys here?" I asked looking from Jake to Billy, his dad, who Charlie was wheeling into lounge. Billy had been stuck in a wheelchair for over a year now, he had been a later victim of the vampire madness. La Push had been one of the last places to settle down after the vamps came out and even now most of the people from the reservation still don't trust the vamp leaders, at all.

"Well, I came by to watch a game with Charlie, and Jake would never pass up a chance to spend time with you." Billy smiled at me as he and Charlie set themselves up in front of the couch, leaving me and Jake in the kitchen.

"So how's everything, Jake?"

"Not bad. I beat Paul and Embry earlier, earned myself $50!"

"Jake! You guys gotta stop betting on things or none of you are gonna have any money for college!" I said, laughing.

"Hey! It was their own fault for thinking they could beat me on a motorcycle." He argued back, laughing with me.

The rest of the evening continued like that, time passing easily with stories, jokes and light-hearted banter. Just two best friends spending time together, with no thoughts or mention of French cemeteries, mysterious notes and silk poppies.

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**A/N: Sorry the stories still setting up, but things will be picking up very soon, sorry its short but this was where the chapter came to a close, now please leave me a word or two, the next chapter is already underway.  
Also i will be putting up a new one-shot very soon with a very dark out of charcter carisle. So if thats your kinda thing have a read it, and if i get a good response i'll expand it.**


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